Insanely
elaborate special effects highlight Tsui Hark's ambitious
sequel to his classic Zu: Warriors from the Magic
Mountain. The result, while bursting with eye candy,
turns out to be a morass of uninvolving spectacle, murky
plotting, and bizarre abstract concepts. The film's
commercial failure marks an unfortunate setback for
Tsui Hark and yet another box-office flop for the maligned
Ekin Cheng.

Review
by Kozo:

Tsui Hark returns to the well for this ambitious sequel
to his seminal fantasy classic Zu: Warriors from
the Magic Mountain. The Legend of Zu reinvents
his fantasy saga with some of the same characters (Ekin
Cheng and Cecilia Cheung sub for Adam Cheng and Brigitte
Lin) but an all-new plot and new conflicts. This effort
was co-funded by the Weinstein brothers of Dimension/Miramax
fame, who walked away with exclusive North American
distribution rights to the film. They also walked away
with an unreleasable product, which will probably earn
some "serves you right" tongue-wagging from
the Hong Kong Cinema fan community.

Ekin Cheng stars as King
Sky, the sole remaining member of the Kun Lun clan.
Two hundred years ago he lost his true love/martial
arts teacher Dawn (Cecilia Cheung) when she got wasted
by evil cloud/thing/force of nature Insomnia. Now Insomnia
has returned, which means that everyone inhabiting the
Zu Mountain range is in serious trouble. Figuring in
is the O-Mei clan, led by White Brows (Sammo Hung).
This particular clan houses the Heaven and Thunder Swords,
which can merge together to form a spiky ball of yellow
light that's reputed to be the most powerful weapon/thing
ever. They need the spiky ball to combat Insomnia, but
unfortunately the merging goes bad and Hollow, the Thunder
Sword's owner, is lost.

Thankfully, White Brows
has a plan. He reincarnates Hollow into a wacky martial
artist named Ying (Wu Jing), but he's still unenlightened.
He needs the guidance of Heaven Sword mistress Enigma
(Cecilia Cheung). King Sky hangs around to help out,
but he's got one eye on Enigma, who's the reincarnation
of his true love Dawn. White Brows needs King Sky too,
because King Sky is the bearer of the "Power of
Regeneration," which needs to be combined with
the "Power of the Mind" and the "Power
of the Universe" to create the Ming Sword, a spiky
blue light club which is supposed to help defeat Insomnia.

Meanwhile, top O-Mei disciple
Red (Louis Koo) guards the Blood Cave, where Insomnia
is hanging out. Add in Patrick Tam as one of O-Mei's
followers and Zhang Ziyi as a commoner thrown into the
middle of the mess, and you've got more people and stuff
going on than you can possibly imagine. As if the above
fantasy hokum wasn't enough, there's also stuff involving
another bad guy named Amnesia (Kelly Lin), who takes
the form of a red fairy who annoys Red. There's the
saga of the Moon Orb, King Sky's sentient weapon which
can somehow sniff out its former owner Dawn, now housed
in Enigma's lovely form. And there's the audience, who
must try to understand what the hell is going on while
also contemplating a trip to the bathroom and the possible
purchase of popcorn.

Overstuffed doesn't even
begin to describe The Legend of Zu, which possesses
a patented Tsui Hark plot that's as confusing as it
is rich in detail. The details themselves are bizarre
abstract concepts that serve no purpose to a normal
human being. The Moon Orb will someday lead King Sky
to Dawn. The Ming Fire possesses the spirit of White
Brows, and must never be extinguished. All O-Mei disciples
must find their own sword, or will not be admitted into
the clan. The Thunder Sword can only find a new master
when its memory is erased in the Tri-Element Hall, which
also houses the departed spirit of Dawn. And if King
Sky eats the Ming Fire and gets stabbed by the Power
of the Universe, he'll get the Ming Sword, and probably
extra experience points and passage to battle the final
boss.

A question for the filmmakers:
just what the hell is any of this supposed to mean?
Tsui Hark never really lets us know. Every plot point
is pulled out of some unknown ether (or perhaps Tsui
Hark's backside) and thrown upon us as some sort of
pseudo-religous gospel that everyone in the land of
Zu understands. Unfortunately, the audience doesn't
understand any of it, which is a bad thing. Tsui Hark
pretty much assumes that we care, which is assuming
way too much.

Adding to the frustration
is a total lack of character. The requisite popstars
are pretty and pose mighty well, but they're hardly
identifiable or even interesting. Presumably Zhang Ziyi's
character could have offered some insight to the uninitiated,
as she's a common warrior who somehow gets embroiled
in this battle of heavenly gods. However, her character
never really does anything, and remains a cipher to
the audience. All she and the other characters do is
run around, hit their marks, and say their lines, and
that just adds to the unintelligible sensory overload
that the film eventually becomes.

On a purely visceral level,
The Legend of Zu offers some charms. The film
is visually spectacular and channels some of Tsui Hark's
celebrated - albeit utterly bizarre - imagination. Yuen
Woo-Ping of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon fame
choreographs a couple of decent action sequences, and
the production design is deserving of some recognition.
However, total attention to the film proves to be an
unrewarding experience. Trying to understand the film
is like swimming in drying cement: try as you might,
you never really seem to get anywhere. The Legend
of Zu can ultimately be rated as great background
chatter/demo material, but if you're looking for a resonant,
coherent film then you're out of luck. But then again,
so is Harvey Weinstein. (Kozo 2001/2002)